Red Tractor - Mass Cancellation

[Scribus]

We have an inspection on Monday. I’ll report back.... ( when I’ve done the rat plan, which will be when I’ve consulted said rats as to their future intentions)

Join DEFRA probably.

 

[ajcc]

The horse burgers exposed the assurance farce for what it is. Wet wipes the lot of you who keep perpetuating the deceit....talk about the tail wagging the dog.
Paying money so you can suffer a humiliating little hitler nit picking your farm management and copper plating rules and regulations year after year. Nutters.

 

[Tonka]

Is it true that certain milk processors are stopping their suppliers selling calves thru marts? I've heard this on jungle drums....

 

[farmerm]

Maybe we TFF crowd fund a buyout and take ownership of Red Tractor... or set up an alternative.. we all have different renewal dates which limits the effect of a mass departure, will take months to build critical mass.

 

[colhonk]

guff she wanted.

I wrote this on a form for non compliance. Got a phone call wondering why I had put this. explained,apparently the Red Tractor scheme is the saviour of us Farmers,and it is voluntary don`t you know.

 

[Demolition Man]

Maybe we TFF crowd fund a buyout and take ownership of Red Tractor... or set up an alternative.. we all have different renewal dates which limits the effect of a mass departure, will take months to build critical mass.

That sounds good, as the owners, we could then tell them for every new rule they need to cancel 3 old ones . Also make the staff keep exacting but pointless records of daily activities. Toilet break logbook..... number of coffee granules used per coffee cup.... daily paperclip inventory, etc etc

 

[David.]

Had our visit end of Dec. Unsure what people mean by unnecessary paperwork, there is nobody more averse to paperwork than myself, and I have to say that everything the inspector asked nicely to see, having given me a fortnight to dot the Is and cross the Ts, could be demanded at any time by either RPA, TS, HSE, Animal Health etc, but with minimal notice.
I say this every time the subject is raised, but on at least one day a year, on RT farms, everything is as it should be, every day.

 

[colhonk]

That sounds good, as the owners, we could then tell them for every new rule they need to cancel 3 old ones . Also make the staff keep exacting but pointless records of daily activities. Toilet break logbook..... number of coffee granules used per coffee cup.... daily paperclip inventory, etc etc

SSSHHHHH, don`t give them even more ideas for pointless questions.

 

[David.]

PS,
I have in my post drawer a booklet about the winners of some South Island dairy awards in 2017, the stuff they are documenting regards animal welfare, health and safety of employees, hazard maps for the entire farm, mission statements, daily staff meeting logs, irrigation records, etc makes my hair stand on end. It must require a full time manager to keep atop of it. Nephew was out there, and it was a regular occurrence for the safety rep to call in when he was passing by.
Just in case anyone thinks NZ has it easy, and we are hard done by.

 

[kiwi pom]

Maybe we TFF crowd fund a buyout and take ownership of Red Tractor... or set up an alternative.. we all have different renewal dates which limits the effect of a mass departure, will take months to build critical mass.

Your still going to have to do what your customers want though? so if you own it and make it so simple its not even a standard, your customers will just ignore it and insist on something else.
Other than a lot of paper work I haven't really seen anything that says RT has particularly high standards.
The customers always right as they're the ones handing over the money?

 

[kiwi pom]

PS,
I have in my post drawer a booklet about the winners of some South Island dairy awards in 2017, the stuff they are documenting regards animal welfare, health and safety of employees, hazard maps for the entire farm, mission statements, daily staff meeting logs, irrigation records, etc makes my hair stand on end. It must require a full time manager to keep atop of it. Nephew was out there, and it was a regular occurrence for the safety rep to call in when he was passing by.
Just in case anyone thinks NZ has it easy, and we are hard done by.

There's a farming business just up the road from me that's constantly expanding its offices to keep up with all the compliance work for their customers and H&S.
Anyone that thinks there's no paper work here is dreaming.
I worked for Fonterra for ten years, if they did what some of the dairy processors seem to do in the UK regarding milk swaps and antibiotic traceability etc they'd be shut down straight away. I believe farm supply rules and paperwork are strict but its nothing compared to the rules the transport and manufacturing side of the business had to put up with, as they were constantly audited by customers.
Mrs pom works for a potato processor and they have big name customers McDonalds etc. Again constantly audited and they have to ensure all their farmers meet the different requirements from all their customers. Generally Global Gap and NZ Gap with other 'odds and ends' added in. H&S also being an ever growing problem, do you have a record of when your agronomist was on farm for example?

 

[milkloss]

Don’t get me wrong the early principles of RT were fine as I’m sure it helped ensure members were up to date with statutory record keeping. If it would have remained at that level it would have been helpful but it gets worse every year. The ever increasing stranglehold they have on our industry is concerning.

It was never sold as being about keeping up with statutory record keeping, it was sold to farmers as being a way to sell our produce for a premium. All it did was devalue non assured produce and earns the ‘compliants’ nothing more for theirs.

I forked RT off this year and the NFU are chasing for their subs now as well, I’m thinking of doing the same with them for supporting and making RT what it is today

The Majors are trying another tactic to kill auctions , deadweight will kill us eventually

The auction boys aren’t exactly whiter than white. I see enough luck money and underhand bidding/dealing going on to put me right off.

 

[jondear]

Now really is not the time for the industry to be appearing to reject higher standards of welfare. It could lead to all sorts of problems with lower quality imports and no answers to the critics as we appear to of walked away from rt.

I agree .Not the time with the Vegan movement gathering momentum!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

My family farm been members since it was brought in. I cancelled it in July as I sold all my cattle in June to go travelling to New Zealand. Am home now and restocking and was contemplating re-activating my membership (had several letters whilst away asking me to re-activate). My intial rant on here follows a conversation with a friend active in NFU who told me regardless of what the members want whole life assurance for animals will be brought in. I am not advocating doing away with the scheme but more a wake up and listen to your membership protest.

It's utter bulls**t, Huw, in my own opinion you would all be better to put the money in a glass ashtray and set fire to it.

It's simply a protection racket, which in effect makes liars out of honest folk, and raises some of the highest production costs in the world, a bit higher... which really makes no sense, because the markey suggests "cheaper" is better, not "but it says here it comes from a farm".

The other side is, there are "the highest standards in the world", but offenders are let off with a couple of minutes being tickled with a feather - it doesn't make sense!
This is part of the "why", that farmers with the best prices in the world think they don't get paid enough, it's a joke.

 

[nick...]

This whole regulation rubbish really pisses me of.farm assurance was suppposed to gain us better prices but it’s done nothing apart from fleecing us to keep others in work and get little hitlers appear to lay down the law.the one who came here last year did not even say good morning and shake my hand when he arrived,just “right I’ll look at your grain store first”these people have too much power and having spoken to the nfu I’m not alone.im afraid it will probably only get worse and coming out of Europe will make no difference,do other countries put up with this.i can imagine the French or Italians tolerating it
Nick...

 

[Barleymow]

Wh at about how animals are slaughtered they don't want to get involved regarding non stun .

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Can't really put up with it, @nick...

I don't think it's a matter of "won't", to be honest.
Yes, we have FA, and yes, it's stringent enough to satisfy our buyers.
But what it isn't, is a racket, nor a matter of polishing the doorhandles of a burning building - it can't afford to be a job creation scheme, not unless the consumers are prepared to stump up the extra money (and they are not prepared to).

For that to happen, you need effective branding, not layers of rules upon rules that don't achieve anything for the consumers or producers.

As someone on here said recently, poll people and they say all the right stuff - but put a trolley in their hands on a thursday evening, they buy on price.

 

[Hfd Cattle]

Had our visit end of Dec. Unsure what people mean by unnecessary paperwork, there is nobody more averse to paperwork than myself, and I have to say that everything the inspector asked nicely to see, having given me a fortnight to dot the Is and cross the Ts, could be demanded at any time by either RPA, TS, HSE, Animal Health etc, but with minimal notice.
I say this every time the subject is raised, but on at least one day a year, on RT farms, everything is as it should be, every day.

Decent point ...however there are inspectors and there are inspectors. My wife does all the paper work and keeps well on top of it, some inspectors have said "great paperwork makes my job easy " other ones spend extra time trying to find something wrong and then critisize the way she does it.
I agree with the sentiments of the thread ,a mass 'walkout' would be a lovely idea but I fear it would come back to bite us. I also agree there are other ways ..via NFU , CLA or TFU membership by which we could possibly bring a change. I fear that while RT was originally a good idea I think it has been hijacked by the 'big buyers ' the NFU,CLA, TFU failed dismally to represent the ag industry in keeping the regulations down to a sensible minimum.

 

[acorn]

I hate it with a passion.............. especially as the majority of the food sold in the UK is not Farm Assured, particularly the imported food. British produce, with all the cross compliance rules, should make it more than safe without the extra cost of RT.


The poll on here last year suggested only 10% of TFF members were


I have cancelled my NFU membership, held since I started farming; just because the NFU's promotion of THEIR RT scheme. Perhaps if more members did the same, they may start to listen to their members concerns !!

Here is your answer to get the NFU to take notice.....

 

[som farmer]

one of my fears of Brexit, the likes of rt and defra, will have free reign to put in all sorts of stupid clauses. if/when we leave eu, all the civil servants dealing with eu regs, will have to justify their jobs, answer...…. more and more legislation to keep them in work.